I'm back! The start of the third story is finally under way! Again, this first arc is going to be 100% original, and will later merge into the canon arc that Mashima is currently writing. This story is going to be darker and scarier than the first two, but it'll still be just as good to read, I promise!

With that said, as always, please review and thanks for reading!

Chapter 1: The Darkening Days

A young, dark-skinned girl, no older than fourteen, walked down the streets of Crocus, scanning the reconstruction. The damage was too substantial, too violent to possibly be remnants of the Grand Magic War Game she had watched. Her sharp senses could tell what had really happened- even though she hadn't been in Crocus on July 7th, suspicion had brought her to the city. Whispers across the country had spoken- mostly in a joking tone- that the damage had been caused by seven rampaging dragons. But she didn't treat it like a joke. She knew all too well that dragons were real, and as the wind picked up, she detected the faintest scent, one that made her shiver and gasp.

The unmistakeable scent of dragons.

The world, or at least, the majority of it, must be unaware of what really happened, the girl realized. Someone's trying to hide the truth…

It was understandable, sure, but was it right? To hide the fact that dragons had once again appeared and ravaged the land? The people had no idea what cataclysm had nearly occurred.

"Did you find anything?"

The girl glanced over her shoulder, where a light brown cat with white wings hovered. It gazed at her curiously with wide, heather blue eyes.

She smiled, "Yes, Millie. I can smell them…the scent's old, probably two weeks or so, but it's there…At last, we finally found out that dragons are still here…" She glanced at the sky, silent as the wind blew her long, light pink hair out. The dark gray eyes were focused on something in the distance, as if she could see the dragon who had raised her.

Millie patted her shoulder and offered a big smile, "It's okay, Savannah. We'll find your mom, for sure! If other dragons came here, then maybe she'll come back too!"

Savannah frowned, "Something bothers me though…the dragons that appeared here weren't friendly. I can smell blood in the air, too. It's faint, but unmistakable…This wasn't just an appearance of dragons. This was a battle of dragons and people…But I don't know how or why it happened…"

The exceed blinked, "Well, what about the other Dragon Slayers? They were here, maybe they fought the dragons! We should go ask them!"

The girl chewed her lip thoughtfully, "I want to look around a bit more first. Let's see if there are any other secrets to find in this city. Then we'll go find the other Dragon Slayers in Fairy Tail, okay?"

Millie nodded, "Okay! Follow me!"

The exceed flew ahead, and Savannah couldn't help but smile. Headstrong as always, I see…

/\/\/\/\/\

In the frozen, northern continent, deep in the forbidding mountains, a great creature slumbered, it's slow, deep breaths shaking the cave. Time passed ceaselessly for it, the hibernation never ending.

Then it felt the change. It was slight, but unmistakeable. Somewhere in the world, a great battle had taken place. The shift made the creature stir from its 17 year coma, releasing a mighty breath from huge jaws.

When it stood, ice that had found its way onto the body of the monster cracked and fell off in chunks the size of houses. The beast took a step, then another, walking until it reached the mouth of a cave it had not seen since it had begun sleeping.

"GRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

A massive, almighty bellow ripped from its jaws, shaking the air and earth. On the cliffs around it, avalanches started tearing down the mountainsides, burying anything and everything in their paths. The beast grunted and stomped through the snow, heading south to where it knew there would be liquid water.

It was time to move again.

/\/\/\/\/\

In a forest not far from Crocus, a stream ran quietly through the earth- but its once clear waters ran now with tinges of scarlet blood which came from the banks, as though something with terrible wounds had come down, desperate to drink, and fallen in.

Further downstream, the water connected to a larger river, and then to a great waterfall that tumbled over the side of a cliff, filling a pool with crystal clear water. Water which was now stained red.

A man floated on the surface, half-dead and unconscious from his wounds. For what seemed like forever, he remained comatose, but perhaps in a reflection of a powerful spirit which defied death, he awoke for a brief few moments to stare up at the night sky.

Then it all faded to black once more.

/

In the darkness of that same night, but in a city much farther away, a teenager ran on the rooftops with silent, black figures pursuing him. He kept glancing over his shoulder, frowning when he noticed they were catching up. The boy leaped from one building to another, hoping to lose his trackers with the jump, but these hunters were as agile and skilled as he was.

At running and jumping, anyway, he thought. The boy paused as he noticed some of the trackers coming from either side, so he picked up the speed and made for the highest building in the city, which was a traditional, feudal tower of japanese style. Maybe he could at least get the height advantage before a fight started.

Getting to the top was easy, but the moment he turned around to wait for his pursuers, a sword point touched the bare skin of his throat.

He held his hands up slowly, rolling his eyes as the other hunters also landed on the rooftop just moments behind their leader.

The man removed a black mask which caused him resemble a ninja, but underneath, the seriousness of his face and the dark eyes still made the figure look like a warrior. At a flick of his hand, the other hunters pointed blades at him, each of different styles and makes. Katanas, broadswords, rapiers, one guy even had a hatchet.

The leader glared at the teenager and spoke with a deep voice, "Did you really think you could escape after getting so close to our base? You are not one of our spies. You are one of the men that rich fool hired to guard him, are you not?"

"Rich fool that just so happens to be cracking down on crime in this city." the teenager shot back, then muttered, "But I guess even officials like him need protection now and then. Especially from bandits who terrorize people and say they're from a noble line of warriors. Please, even Gajeel's ass is more noble than yours."

"Not that it will do him any good." the leader snapped, anger flaring in his eyes at the scorn. His anger turned smug, "Especially not now that you've led us straight to his hideaway. I suspected he'd choose a place with a good vantage point over the city. In a battle, the high ground is always better. That's what you thought too, isn't it, Dragon Slayer?"

At the teen's raised eyebrow, the man snorted, "I know who you are. Virtually every face in the underground is familiar with you. One of the mighty Dragon Slayers who brought Fairy Tail back to the top no more than two weeks ago. But you have a weakness the others do not…no sword. How do you expect to fight blades with your bare hands?"

The teenager sighed, "Buddy, take it from me, you really don't want to know the answer to that. And you should probably turn around."

The man smirked, "Do not think you can fool me with trickery."

But the teen shrugged, "Okay. Blindness it is."

His body suddenly lit up like a small sun, making the bandits howl in pain as the searing white light burned their eyes. Only the leader was quick enough to cover his face and quickly step back, and once the light died down he glared furiously at the teenager, "I only need one blade to kill you anyway- gupu!"

He was silenced as a swift blaze of fire came down and smashed his head into the roof, effectively knocking him out.

A spiky-haired, dark eyed teen stood up off the leaders unconscious body and frowned at the other boy, "Sting, I thought Erza told you to do recon."

Sting rolled his eyes, "She wants me to spy on ninjas? Natsu, you can't spy on a ninja. It just doesn't work."

"Good point…hm?" Natsu stopped and glanced around as the significant number of other bandits recovered from the blinding pain and gave the twins murderous glares. The leader was still out, but they didn't need a command to attack these two.

Sting rolled his eyes, "Erza's gonna kill us."

"Probably." Natsu admitted.

The bandits lunged with screams of anger, all trying to stab at the twins at the same time, but the screams went from anger to pain as an explosion of heat and light blasted them off of the rooftop and into the night sky above the city.

Those who recovered tried to attack the brothers again, but now the twins fought back to back in a perfect sync that could only be performed by years of practice. Their fists struck with incredible speed, red and white blurs that rendered another enemy defeated with every strike.

One of the bandits stood on a rooftop a short distance away, and now he fired arrows at the Twin Dragons. His allies were retreating to him, hoping for some form of long-distance protection.

Natsu glared at the archer from the corner of his eye and muttered, "Breath."

"Yeah." Sting growled, flashed bright white again to stun their enemies, then sucked in air alongside Natsu.

"Fire Dragon's…"

"White Dragon's…"

"Roar!" The twins shouted in unison and unleashed a laser burst that was surrounded by twisting fire.

The bandit had just enough time to widen his eyes and whimper, "Oh, shit…"

An explosion ripped through the night as the combined breath devastated the building and remaining bandits. All that remained was a pile of wreckage and a number of unconscious or groaning bodies.

"Wow, you guys sure made a mess."

The twins glanced up as Happy and Lector flew down with shakes of their heads.

Lector sighed, "Glad its just us and Erza. If we brought everyone else, there wouldn't be any reward at all."

"Aye! Bufufufu!" Happy giggled.

Natsu scratched his head, "Well, that wasn't so bad. At least it was just one building this time."

"And the bandits are all gone." Sting agreed, then glanced with slight fear at his twin, "Erza can't kill us for this, can she?"

The Salamander shrugged, "I don't know. Do I look like Erza?"

As if on cue, an angry shout from below made the brothers jump, "STING! NATSU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING UP THERE?!"

Natsu called down, "The bandits are gone! We beat them all!"

"YOU DESTROYED A THREE HUNDRED YEAR-OLD SHRINE, YOU IDIOTS!" Erza roared.

The White Dragon groaned, "Oh, of course we did. The building we blew up just had to be an ancient, super important shrine. I swear, we're the most unlucky bastards in the whole frickin' world."

"I dare you to tell Lucy that." Lector remarked.

Sting pointed at him, "You, sir, make an excellent point."

The exceed grinned, "Of course I do."

"GET DOWN HERE!"

The twins rolled their eyes and called back together, "Yes, Erza!"

Happy snickered, "You guys are screeeeewed!"

/\/\/\/\/\

"Do you two realize the damage you've caused?!"

Their client, a bald, middle-aged man was pacing back and forth as he glared at the brothers who were being restrained by Erza as he chewed them out. The twins looked more bored than intimidated, but the man kept going on.

"This is why I requested just Erza! Your Master assured me she was the mage to go to for precision!" the man snapped.

"Erza doesn't have a nose that can hunt better than a bloodhound, sir." Sting pointed out, "And the bandits are all in jail. Doesn't that make things a little better?"

The man sighed and ground out, "As helpful as your actions were, the sheer destructiveness of them almost completely contradicts it! That shrine was a historical landmark! Did you have to destroy it to defeat the bandits?!"

"Are you serious?" Natsu muttered, "You're upset about how we did you a favor?"

"It was made of wood, can't you just rebuild it anyway?" Sting asked.

"Be quiet!" Erza smacked them in the back of the head, stunning the Twin Dragons into silence.

Their client grunted, "I would put you both under arrest, but seeing as the cells are all full, I'll let you go."

Erza nodded, "Thank you sir. Again, I'm very sorry for what these two have done. I'll see to it they are properly punished at home." Her menacing glare made the Twin Dragons cringe in fear.

Even the client seemed a little sympathetic to that, so he waved a hand, "Just keep them alive so they have to live with what they've done."

"Oh, they'll live." Erza said darkly, "But their punishment will be the most unpleasant torture I can possibly think of."

Sting and Natsu exchanged terrified looks, then looked up at their client with pleading expressions.

"We're very sorry!"

"Please throw us in jail!"

Erza started to drag them away, muttering to herself, "You two will suffer like never before."

Lector shook his head as he followed them out, "They've really done it this time."

"Aye!" Happy chuckled.

"So, what do you think Erza's gonna do to them?" Lector asked.

Happy grinned evilly, "Hmm…"